Question and Response

Q. “What is a Prayer Coach and when should a prayer leader contact one?”

As the prayer movement has matured, the Lord has raised up a growing number of men and women who have a unique combination of spiritual gifting and a passion for prayer. As resources to the Body of Christ, they have the ability to mentor a congregation into deeper personal prayer and assist in developing amore strategic in corporate prayer focus. While they may teach and/or preach, their greater value is providing counsel to the prayer leader and an example as they facilitate corporate prayer.

The congregation’s Prayer Coordinator needs to surround herself/himself with four key resources:

A Prayer Champion: preferably the Senior Pastor, this person casts the vision to become a House of Prayer and leads by example.

A Prayer Consultant: someone who can be reached quickly be E-mail, phone or personal visit to prayerfully assist in discerning strategy and solving problems.

A Prayer Connection: a person or ministry or website that can direct the prayer leader to appropriate resources and events.

A Prayer Coach: a person who can assist the prayer leader through their gift(s) of teaching, administration, leadership, shepherding.

A Prayer Coach will minister primarily to the prayer leadership but may also serve by leading workshops and facilitating corporate prayer gatherings. Their work is to equip the prayer leader to take the prayer ministry of the congregation to the next level.

The Church Prayer Leaders Network is trying to develop a team of Prayer Consultants, Connections and Coaches. Currently we have 10 CPLN reps and staff who are available to you. We will introduce them to you in our next PrayerLeader OnLine.

An Idea for Prayer Champions

Summertime Fun!

Shake-up the weeknight prayer meeting this summer with a series of prayerwalks and some prayer evangelism. This is a great idea for involving church members who are not the sit-still-and-be-silent-as-other-people-pray-around-a-circle type. It is perfect for kinesthetic (active) learners and a wonderful opportunity for parents to disciple their children into a prayer. Here is what one church is trying this summer:

• June: 1 session of training; 4 weeks of prayerwalking the community
• July: 1 session of training; 3 weeks of “Free Lemonade! Free Prayer”
• August: 4 weeks of “Free Lemonade! Free Prayer” Prayer Evangelism

Uncommon Prayer Meetings

Turning Prayer Meetings into Adventures

Focus: Praying for the Next Generation

Foundation: 1 Samuel 3:1-21; 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Acts 13:1-13, 15:36-41; 2 Timothy 4:11

Too many of our children and youth walk away from both the Church and Christ as they move into a secular adult world. Invest an evening in their spiritual future. Invite parents and grandparents. Ask the kids and young people for prayer requests; as specific and honest as they dare to be!

Interactive Prayer Stations

PrayerLeader OnLine interviews Michelle Marx, Pastor of Worship Arts: Music, Drama and Creative Arts Ministries

Living Hope Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Q. Michelle, how did you come up with the idea for Interactive Prayer Stations?

I like to call them Worship Interactive Experiences. I first got the idea from an article I read four or five years ago. I don’t even remember who wrote the article, but it discussed various ways to be interactive and creative with our people in worship/prayer. The idea of WIE was born. The rooms can be arranged around a central theme, of which there are an infinite number! I’ve designed experiences that center around prayer, missions, worship, purpose, listening to God, revival, forgiveness, meditation, fruits of the spirit, beatitudes… you name it! The list is endless. A Worship Interactive Evening is designed specifically as an invitation for the believer to actively participate in various creative and introspective ways of worshiping God.

Featured Resource

We’ve all heard the excuse, “it looks like a great book but it will just take me too long to read it. No thank you.”

Two InterVarsity press booklets are made for just such an occasion! Inexpensive, pocket-sized, and quick read, each nonetheless provides scriptural truth and practical wisdom. A good recruiting tool!

Prayer
By John White

RETAIL PRICE: $1.50
ONLINE DISCOUNT: 20% off retail
LENGTH: 32 pages
SIZE: 3 1/2 x 5 inches
ISBN: 0-87784-067-9
IVP ORDER CODE: 67

This booklet by John White, originally a chapter in his classic book The Fight, offers advice on prayer from a theologian and pastor. He covers fundamental issues such as knowing what to pray for, maintaining concentration, praying in public, discerning God's voice and more.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Deep Calls to Deep
• God in Search of Man
• Prayer Language
• Praying in Public
• Hearing God's Voice
• The Bible and Prayer
• Daydreaming
• The Practice of the Presence
• A Few Suggestions

Praying When Life Hurts
W. Bingham Hunter

RETAIL PRICE: $1.50
ONLINE DISCOUNT: 20% off retail
LENGTH: 32 pages
SIZE: 3 1/2 x 5 inches
ISBN: 0-87784-089-X
IVP ORDER CODE: 89

This booklet is an idea item to use as a gift to those who have come for prayer for difficult needs. The description below comes from the InterVarsity website at http://ivpress.gospelcom.net/

I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me.  When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted.        (Psalm 77)

"Many Christians struggle with prayer . . . and most of us are afraid to talk about it," writes W. Bingham Hunter in the opening of this brief, honest and comforting booklet. He continues, "God commands us to pray (1Thessalonians 5:17), and prayer is one of the deep desires of the redeemed heart. But we are stalked by the cynicism and skepticism in our culture and assailed by doubt. The disappointments of unanswered prayer erode our faith and discourage persistence. The pervasive presence of disaster, evil and injustice make us angry. Pain and suffering magnify such feelings and may completely overwhelm the ability to pray.

"In teaching on prayer, the truths of Scripture are often replaced by sweet thoughts and speculation, and opportunities for honesty about what pain and suffering do to us are avoided. However, what theologians and philosophers call 'the problem of pain' has challenged the people of God from their earliest days. There are people for whom it is largely an intellectual issue, but for most of us, suffering is personal.

"Pain may be physical or mental, sorrow and suffering may be short-term or chronic, and encounters with evil may be personal or vicarious. Yet whatever their nature, the consequences are often the same: Much of the time it is impossible to pray; and when something does eventually come out, the words are questions--often filled with anguish and anger."

Here Hunter tackles how to pray when life hurts both personally and practically. Drawing on his own experiences, passages from Job and Psalms, and the writings of contemporaries like Joseph Bayly and Philip Yancey, he offers no simple answers. Yet he also points to what we can be sure of: "the historical fact of the cross and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, of His victory over pain, evil and death--the fact that God took our suffering into Himself."

Both booklets would make excellent gifts for your prayer team or others you want to encourage.

Introduction

It's finally here! Our June newsletter. We apologize for the delay. A move from Colorado Springs to Terre Haute, Indiana, Empowered, our annual CPLN convention, and some computer problems got the best of us. We will be sending the July newsletter in two weeks, then we should get back on track with our August newsletter. Thank you for your patience.

On another note, Empowered was a tremendous blessing to those who attended. Our keynote speakers, Dr. David Jeremiah, Dr. Jerome McNeil and Rev. David Bryant delivered powerful messages. Bryant's address "The Sum of All Tears," on Friday night ended with many in in the congregation on their faces before God. Be watching our website, as soon we will have tapes for all the keynotes and workshops available on our webstore.

Jonathan Graf
President